Actor and director Aamir Khan is relaxed, even though he’s sitting on stage in front of India’s Most Influential Young Indians, who’re holding on to every word. Leaning back in a black suit that’s fighting to accommodate his muscular frame, the actor has one profound bit of advice for the men before him. “When you’re at your very worst, is when you get tested.” The period in question is from the distant past, a time when Aamir Khan wasn’t the only Bollywood star to have successfully married substance and commerce. Back then he was being called “a one-hit wonder”, dragged back to earth by a string of box office disasters that followed the stratospheric success of ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’. “I had too many flops in a row and I could see my career was over before it even started. I was in a quicksand-like situation, where I could feel myself going under,” he recalls. Help arrived in the form of reigning hotshot director Mahesh Bhatt. “I thought my career will be saved, I would do one film with Bhatt saab and my career would be back on track. He was the hand pulling me out of the quicksand.” Imagine the devastation when Khan heard the script narration, and realized that he hated it. Agonizing over his future, he did the most foolish thing – said no. “If I had compromised at that time, my career would have been totally different. Then I would constantly make compromises. But that decision gave me so much courage and strength, and I knew I only wanted to do what I believe in.” Success hasn’t changed his approach. It’s usually the film that everyone warns him about, the role that no savvy career man would pick, that sparks his interest. “It’s not that I like taking risks, I’m also scared but I don’t let my fear hold me back. My fear makes me more alert.”